Chapter 29
Damn<sup></sup>
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Status
Name: Dorn''axial
Dungeon Name: A Dragon''s Dungeon
Dungeon Level: 30
+1 for 31,000 DP''s
Floors: 17/17
Dungeon Points: 25,375,291
Dungeon Rating: C6 – Your dungeon is
scary
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He sighed, wistful, wishing he could spend the points on his dungeon, instead of what he knew he needed to do. His avatar begged off from the rest of his team, leaving them in C-Housing. He merely told them that he needed to meditate, to calm his mind for whatever danger was at the dungeon, and that they should go meet with Warley in D-Housing.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He said to Kiera, “Wish me luck.”
“Good luck, big guy. Come back to me,” said Kiera.
“Always,” answered Dorn, before activating the glyph on his back, teleporting directly to the core room.
A sense of great anticipation filled him, and a feeling of nostalgia. This wasn''t the first time he had fought against the drow; they, along with the rest of the denizens of the underdark, were at the very least neutral in relations with the Demon and Devil Plane.
***
Kiera and the rest of her party teleported to the D-floor, and found a state of panic surrounding most of the human adventurers. Warley was at the center, saying, “Everyone who wants to fight, come to the seventh floor with me. Everyone who is scared, can simply remain here, safe behind the spatial shields.”
Strangely, this did not seem to calm down the crowd.
Jerry, standing next to Warley, said into his ear, “Maybe you shouldn''t have mentioned that two matriarchs were here.”
Jerry spoke up to the crowd; he said, “The drow are here now. They have already killed everything and everyone in the surroundings. With the perimeter secured, in a few minutes, they''ll be entering the elven quarter. Stay here and trust in the shields, or follow Warley to the seventh floor and fight. If neither of these work for you, feel free to try your chances breaking through the perimeter they are leaving behind.”
As Jerry finished speaking, gasps were heard. Everyone turned their head to look towards the space shields separating the elven quadrant. A large black cloud of potent Dark magic was flowing from the center. Quickly, the cloud pressed up against the space shields. A sudden silence went up in the crowd, as the pressure from the clash between darkness and space magic caused the air to become peculiarly heavy.
Slowly, a minute went by. Then another. After waiting for around half an hour, the pressure from the clash slowly dissipated. However, the cloud still remained at the edge of the shields. People cheered.
Warley said, “See? The drow are strong, but they are no match for this dungeon. Now, those of you fighting, come with me to the seventh floor.”
Warley watched as most of the people looked at each other. Other than the Seekers of Capital, minus Dorn, and the remaining members of the Voices of Fortune, no one stood forward. Warley looked shocked at the people.
“If we don''t stop the drow, this entire dungeon will be at risk!” Warley yelled.
Someone in the crowd yelled back, “The dungeon seems to be safe enough. Let the elves take care of their own problems! It''s their fault that the celestial tree brought the drow!”
As the crowd started murmuring their agreement, Jerry turned to Warley with a wry smile, saying, “You were the head of the human''s adventurer''s guild in the Khal Kingdom for thirty years, and you still don''t understand how the minds of adventurers work? If you really want to start a new kingdom made for the adventurers and by the adventurers, pay attention.”
Suddenly, Jerry raised his voice above the crowd, “Every D-ranked drow killed is worth 100 Devil Points. Every C-ranked is worth 500. B''s are 1000, and A''s are 10,000.”
Suddenly, a huge roar of support went through the crowd, and almost all of the adventurers sprinted towards the second floor''s teleportation glyph. Jerry and Warley were left looking over the small number of family members of adventurers left in the town.
“See?” asked Jerry. “Piece of cake.”
Warley, tinged with embarrassment for his people, gave a wry grin, before saying, “Well, I better get down to the seventh floor myself, before the matriarchs show up.” He then hurried off. Jerry grinned and headed back to the inn.
***
Down in the core room, Emelia and Dorn watched as the drow pressed their darkness magic against the D-housing level''s shields.
Emelia curiously asked, “Any chance they break through the shields?”
Dorn gave her an annoyed look, saying, “I was a silver Space dragon at the SS level with a major affinity for Space. What do you think?”
Ignoring his rhetorical question, Emelia said, “But this would be the perfect excuse to drop the shields on that floor and blame it on the drow.”
Dorn said, “Uh huh. And how would I explain that the shields are still in place in the C-housing level?”
Emelia grinned, “Woops. Didn''t think of that. Oh well, will you now tell me your secret plan for the 25 million points you gained from killing your pet Soul mage? It better be good, because now that your plan of luring the Hartjenstein is gone, you''ll soon be having another fight just as difficult as this one. Plus, it needs to be able to stop or kill an S-ranked matriarch.”
Dorn responded, “I''m going to buy my new dragon body, cultivate it to B1, do the soul transference, then cultivate up to at least A9, if not S1”
Emelia looked at him with her lower jaw literally hanging down, before slowly closing it. After pausing for a second, she opened her mouth like she was about to say something, before slowly closing it once again.
Dorn gave her a questioning look, saying, “What?”
Emelia blinked, the began to laugh hysterically, literally falling to the ground and rolling around, with tears rolling down her cheeks.
Dorn, used to her eccentric behavior, still felt that this was rather extreme. Once again, he questioned, “What?”
In between laughing, Emelia managed to force out: “You don''t even have enough points to create a newborn silver dragon, and you want to do all that?”
Dorn frowned in confusion, “I know you said it was expensive, but shouldn''t 25 million be enough?”
Emelia finally managed to get her laughter under control, before looking up. She said, “Dorn, we sold the pattern for the dragon for 29 million points. Do you honestly think it would take less to create the actual, living, breathing dragon? Did you not listen when I told you that Dungeon Avatars are a bottomless pit of DP''s? Your plan would require at least a billion DP''s, and that''s the conservative estimate. Why else would the gods be able to sell the Tears of a God for nearly 500 million points? It''s so the dungeon core can save their avatar from dying and having to spend all the points to re-cultivate one.”
In dawning realization, Dorn was starting to get seriously pissed. Remembering what happened to the Nature dragon last time he was this angry, he started taking deep breaths. When he had calmed down, he said, “Let me get this straight. I killed my mole in the Hartjenstein family, precipitating another fight in the next few days. For this, I received an amount of Dungeon Points insufficient to either raise my cultivation to A-rank or even create a dragon.”
Emelia sing-songed, “Don''t forget the two S-ranked drow matriarchs coming down to destroy your celestial tree. And you only have Warley to stop them.”
Dorn replied, “Then, what the hell are you so happy for?”
Emelia sighed, before responding, “Seriously, I think you have brain damage or something. That would at least explain why you''re with a human.”
Dorn angrily retorted, “I thought you were ove-”
Emelia interrupted, “I am. Now shut up and listen. Remember how dungeons get DP''s for creating entropy? Remember how the celestial tree both granted and cost 25 million to absorb and grow, respectively? What do you think will happen when the drow burn it to the ground? It''s not like they can get at your core. The S1-ranked Soul mage that you vaporized already tried and failed. If they failed, what can the drow matriarchs do?”
For a second, Dorn looked elated. Then his expression fell, before saying, “Well, it turns out you don''t know everything. Two matriarchs will be able to summon an S-ranked demon. Despite how impressive my ten shields are, they are not capable of standing up to either infernal or holy mana. The only reason we could laugh at the churches and their moronic followers was because the Gods don''t give a damn about the lower realms, so they obviously don''t supply their ''followers'' with their own, personal, holy mana.”
Emelia quietly responded, “Oh. That''s bad.”
Dorn didn''t respond. Emelia and Dorn looked through the dungeon orb as the matriarchs gave up trying to breach the C-housing level''s shields and finally proceeded into the dungeon.
Dorn narrated out loud, “Well, the elves'' quarter is completely gone, but that''ll be cheap to fix. Or, at least it would, if we weren''t so totally screwed. Luckily, all of their fighters are already in the seventh floor and their non-combatants in the sixth. Looks like we''ve already got the humans, elves, and dwarves waiting.”
Emelia perked up a little, saying, “Did you have to bribe the dwarves like you did the humans?”
“No, to them, drow and high elves are both elves. The chance to kill as many as possible was all the incentive they needed. That being said, don''t tell any of them that we''re giving the humans Devil Points, or they''ll demand some too.”
“What about the beast-men?” asked Emelia.
“We''ve only received about five clans, totaling about 100 fighters and 150 non-combatants. Their highest ranked cultivators are only in the upper B-levels, and they would only antagonize the humans and split their focus.”
Emelia said, “Well, at least the light elves and dwarves all started to migrate here. Not to mention the enormous amount of C-ranked humans. Too bad the elves and dwarves haven''t sent their truly powerful forces here yet.”
Morosely, Dorn said, “The B-ranked and above humans won''t come until they hear that this dungeon has reached such a level. Despite the rumors of the dungeon causing a massive influx of adventurers, the higher ranked ones will simply assume that no new dungeon could possibly have good enough rewards yet, for them to come.”
“And the dwarves and elves?” asked Emelia.
“Luckily, each race has an A-level: Stroggean Oakmantle of the dwarves and Ailmer Enfina of the elves,” Dorn said.
“How many A-levels did the drow send?”
Dorn said, “Six priestesses, but they left four outside to kill anything that escapes.”
Emelia pondered this for a second, “Well, our two A-levels and one S-level can stop their two priestesses and one of the matriarchs. Hopefully, one of the matriarchs will continue through the dungeon in an effort to get to the tree, instead of teaming up to kill Warley, followed by everyone else.”
Dorn quirked an eyebrow, saying “Drow clans work together? Keep dreaming.”
Emelia nodded, saying, “We need something to tilt the balance on the seventh floor. And we need something that can either stop, kill, or turn a matriarch. Can a single matriarch summon an S-level demon?”
Dorn stroked his chin. “No,” he said, “After burning the tree and trying futilely to destroy my core, she will be forced to acknowledge the need to return to the drow stuck on the seventh floor to recover the second matriarch so they can together summon a demon.”
“Well, your avatar is enough to tilt the balance on the seventh floor. Speaking of, they''ve just entered the sixth floor, so you should probably get moving,” Emelia said.
“What about the matriarch?” asked Dorn.
“We can figure that out while you go. It''s best not to allow the drow or anyone else to realize that you''re a dungeon avatar. Split your mind evenly between the core and yourself. Now go.”
Thankfully, Dorn had spent these past couple of weeks practicing this skill. As his body disappeared up to the seventh floor to join the rest of the fighters, Dorn''s core and Emelia got into a discussion about the second matriarch.
“I''m really not seeing anything that can trap or kill the second matriarch,” said Dorn. “We can''t build or summon any S-level creatures. And the drow are protected from soul magic, at least somewhat. In the time I would need to Dominate her, she''d have already burned the tree, figured out that she needs to summon a devil, and left to return to the upper floors. It''s too bad I can''t just trap her with Space magic. Stupid gods, making rules about allowing allowing everyone to be able to reach the core and any teleportation glyphs.”
“That''s it!” shouted Emelia.
Before Dorn could ask what she had realized, his dungeon senses picked up five airships in the distance, flying towards the mountain. The Hartjenstein family had arrived.
***
Silence reigned in the forest of the seventh floor, as the three sentient races'' fighters stood in formations, watching the teleportation glyph''s entrance. Warley, Ailmer, and Stronggean, as the nominal leaders of the races, stood in front, waiting.
The teleportation glyph glowed, and a black cloud of gas appeared.